
■ 




■ 

r * . 

I 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



dlptp, — — iaja^ng^l ^u* 

Shelf _.„$_&_ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



1 



Evaporation 

IN THE 

WOOD PULP INDUSTRY. 



THE 

LILLIE MULTIPLE EFFECT 

EVAPORATORS 

(S. Morris Lillie, Patentee,) 
IN THE 

Wood Pulp Industry. 






ISSUED BY 

The Sugar Apparatus Mfg. Co., 

328 Chestnut Street, 

philadelphia. 

Makers of The Lillie Apparatus. 



(V 



¥»<rtyy 



V 50 



Q-1 1 a 



PREFACE. 



The Lillie Multiple Effect Evaporating Apparatus, 
whose use in the Wood Pulp Industry is the occasion 
of this pamphlet, is a new aspirant for public favor. 

But two Multiple Effects of this type have been 
constructed, although a number are now in hand, one 
for concentrating the soda liquors of the now defunct 
American Wood Paper Company, and the other for 
thickening the "sweet waters" of the Mollenhauer 
Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn, N. Y. 

These two apparatuses, to operate on two very 
different solutions, were built after much costly experi- 
menting, with the expectation that they would estab- 
lish not only the practicability of the type, but also its 
superiority over all others. In the estimation of those 
competent to judge, both objects have been attained. 
(See pp. 15 et seq.) 

The record of the Multiple Effect built for the 
American Wood Paper Co. is quite fully given in the 
following pages, and that of the other Multiple Effect 
is incidentally alluded to. 

JutY 15th, 1893. 



THE LILLIH APPARATUS 

IN THE 
WOOD PULP INDUSTRY. 

TN the spring of 1891, a Lillie Evaporator of 
* fair size was erected in the recovery depart- 
ment of the American Wood Paper Company, 
Manayunk Pa., to demonstrate its ability to 
properly handle their soda liquors. It re- 
mained in constant use for some six months, 
and was worked under varying conditions with- 
out trouble and with uniform success from the 
day it started to the day its use was discon- 
tinued by the closing of the mill preparatory to 
alterations. During these six months the 
apparatus was run by the employes of the 
American Wood Paper Co. , and its performance 
was carefully noted by the officers of the com- 
pany, by its superintendent, and by outside 
experts. At the same time the works of other 



pulp makers were visited, and all possible in- 
formation was obtained regarding the only- 
other Evaporating Apparatus then in the mar- 
ket for the concentration of black liquors. 
In spite of the most strenuous competition 
and opposition by the makers of the other 
apparatus, an order was placed for a Quad- 
ruple Effect Lillie Evaporator to handle black 
liquors for 60,000 pounds of pulp in twenty- 
four hours. It was the judgment of officers, 
superintendent and experts that the Lillie was 
the better apparatus for the purpose. 

At the end of the six months' use the 
tubes of the apparatus were apparently in the 
condition in which they were at the beginning 
of the six months : they were not corroded, so 
far as could be seen, and they were absolutely 
free of scale. The conditions under which 
the apparatus worked were in some respects 
most unfavorable. The black liquors were 
not strained or filtered at all after leaving the 
washing vats, and in consequence contained 
more or less pulp, which was carried into the 
evaporator, and, at times, when the liquor vats 
were low, in such quantities as to nearly fill its 



evaporating spaces. Whenever this occurred, 
the door of the evaporating chamber was 
opened and the pulp removed without difficulty 
and with but a short detention. This possi- 
bility of quick cleaning is one of the features 
of the Lillie Apparatus, and it was this ability 
to quickly clean the Lillie that enabled the 
American Wood Paper Co. to keep its pulp 
mill running, and was the cause of the Quad- 
ruple Effect making the great record herein- 
after pointed out. 

The story of the Lillie Quadruple Effect 
in the works of the American Wood Paper Co. 
is not in every respect a pleasing one, from our 
point of view. On starting the apparatus 
much difficulty was had, which was the more 
irritating because it was wholy unnecessary 
and its cause inexcusable. It was not due to 
anything in the nature of the apparatus, or to 
faults in its design, but was wholly on account 
of culpable carelessness on the part of me- 
chanics who were in the employ of the con- 
tractors to whom its construction and erection 
had been intrusted. The results of this care- 
lessness were not discovered until the attempt 



8 



was made to work the apparatus. Some of 
them were rectified, but others could not be 
without a stoppage of several weeks' duration, 
and were therefore endured, though at all times 
a handicap upon the Quadruple Effect during 
the period of its use. A trouble, more un- 
pleasant than serious, was met with in the 
leaking of some of the large joints of the 
effects, due to red lead having been used in 
making the joints. None of the difficulties 
experienced were inherent in the apparatus. 
They were none of them met with in the 
first apparatus erected in. the American Wood 
Paper Co.'s mill, and they will not be ex- 
perienced with any future apparatus, nor again 
in this Quadruple Effect, which has, since 
the shutting down of the mill, been taken 
apart and put together again in proper man- 
ner. Aside from the unpleasant features above 
referred to, and in spite of the defects in 
the erection, by which it was hampered, the 
Lillie Quadruple Effect vindicated the theory 
of its construction, and justified the confidence 
that had been placed in it. It kept the re- 
covery department running without the loss of 



a day under conditions which would have 
compelled, had any other apparatus been em- 
ployed, a stoppage of one week out of every 
four, it may be safely asserted. 

In the first place, the black liquors were 
very inadequately filtered, the filtering beds 
having had not more than one-sixth the effi- 
ciency of those of a neighboring pulp mill in 
which the other make of multiple effect evapo- 
rator is used. As a consequence of this de- 
ficient filtration, some pulp was at all times 
passing into the quadruple effect with the 
black liquor, and at times to such an extent as 
to quite solidly fill many of the spaces between 
the evaporating tubes. This difficulty could 
have been remedied by providing proper 
filter beds, and undoubtedly would have been 
but for the fact that the Little was able, not- 
withstanding the pulp, to concentrate all the 
black liquor the remainder of the recovery de- 
partment could handle. However, the pres- 
ence of pulp in the black liquors is not our 
reason for thinking that, had the evaporators 
used in other pulp mills been in use instead of 
the Little in the pulp mill of the American 



IO 



Wood Paper Co., the latter would have been 
shut down one week out of every four. 
The principal reason for our opinion was the 
condition of the black liquor itself. Owing, 
apparently, to methods adopted for recovering 
the waste lime, and to the use of the lime thus 
recovered, the black liquors of the establish- 
ment became charged with silicates in such 
condition that they were deposited copiously 
upon the tubes of the Quadruple Effect in the 
form of a hard silicious scale, which was more 
or less mixed with pulp, and which made it 
necessary to frequently clean the tubes. It is 
owing to the fact that the construction of the 
Lillie Apparatus permits of quick and easy 
cleaning that the American Wood Paper Co. 
was able to keep its recovery department run- 
ning after its stock of soda had gotten into this 
abnormal condition. Nearly every Sunday, 
for a long period, two or more of the effects were 
opened and scale removed from the tubes, 
ranging from 1-16 to 1-4 inch in thickness. 
A quadruple effect of another make in the 
neighboring pulp mill, before referred to, is 
shut down, and the entire mill also, for one 



II 



week each year to cut out and replace the 
tubes of the first effect, and some tubes 
in the other effects, on account of a silicious 
scale no worse than that removed from the 
tubes of the American Wood Paper Co.'s 
Lillie Quadruple Effect, nearly every Sunday. 
We have ourselves seen the said quadruple 
effect in the neighboring mill when shut down, 
and have been shown by the superintendent of 
the mill the tubes which had been cut out, and 
so can say of our own knowledge that the 
scale on them was no more serious than the 
scale which on many a Sunday was removed 
from the tubes of the Lillie Quadruple Effect, 
and we believe we are justified in saying that 
had the Quadruple Effect in the works of the 
American Wood Paper Co. been of this other 
make, the works would have been shut down 
one week out of every four after their stock 
of soda had gotten into the abnormal condi- 
tion referred to ; whereas with the Lillie they 
were not shut down a single day on account of 
the scale, or on any other account after the 
original difficulties had been remedied, or, 
rather, partially remedied. 



12 

That the liquors were in an abnormal 
condition is shown by the fact that the Lillie 
Evaporator, first erected in the works of the 
American Wood Paper Co., showed no scale 
whatever on its tubes after some six months' 
continuous use, and, further, by the fact that 
no scale appeared on the tubes of the last 
apparatus up to the time the new method of 
treating their soda liquors was adopted. 

So, apart from the considerable trouble at 
first had with the Quadruple Effect, due to the 
poor work done by certain mechanics, which 
was not discovered until after it had been 
started, and apart from the leakage of joints, 
due to the use of red lead in making them, 
it may be said that the record of the Lillie 
Quadruple Effect was a remarkable one. We 
wish again to state that none of the troubles 
experienced when the Quadruple Effect was 
first started were inherent in the Lillie Appa- 
ratus, and that none of them were met with in 
the first Lillie Apparatus set up in the works 
of the American Wood Paper Co. The 
present Quadruple Effect has, since the shut- 
down of the works, been taken apart and re- 



13 

erected with its joints made, and all other 
work done in a proper manner, and when put 
to work again on black liquors will, we are 
sure, show in all respects the superiority 
which was expected of it by those who wit- 
nessed and studied the workings of the first 
apparatus. 

The advantages which we claim the Lillie 
Multiple Effect Evaporator possesses for use 
in the wood-pulp industry are : 

i st. That all its parts are accessible 
for easy and quick cleaning, a desirable 
feature in which it excels all other evap- 
orators, and which means, when it is 
employed on black liquors, that when the 
evaporating tubes do become coated with 
the silicious scale that is sure to come 
sooner or later, we are informed, the scale 
may be cleaned from the tubes without 
inconvenience or delay, and without the 
removal of a single tube. 

2d. That it will send the concen- 
trated liquor away at a greater density 



H 

and higher temperature than the evapo- 
rator commonly used for black liquors 
and therefore in better condition for 
incineration. 

3d. That it will do its work more 
economically. This is due to the manner 
in which the steam and water of conden- 
sation are used in the effects ; to methods 
of handling the liquors possible only in 
the Lillie Apparatus, and to the fact that 
a greater number of effects may be em- 
ployed than is the case with other 
apparatus. 

4th. That — and this is pertinent to 
its use in all industries — it is an Apparatus 
which in its essence and mode of operation, 
as well as in its construction, is a distinct 
and really great advance upon all preced- 
ing evaporating apparatus. It is as much 
so as a Corliss or automatic cut-off steam 
engine is an advance upon the old throt- 
tling engine. 

We have just stated that the Lillie Evap- 
orating Apparatus is not only a great departure 
from all preceding apparatus as regards con- 



15 

struction and mode of operation, but that it is 
a really great advance upon them, It may be 
pertinently asked whether this opinion is con- 
fined to ourselves, or whether we share it with 
others qualified to judge of such matters ? To 
such a question we are able to reply, that we 
are supported in our opinion by people who 
are probably as well informed regarding the 
various types of evaporating apparatus as any 
in the country, and who have backed their 
opinion by investing a good many thousand 
dollars in Lillie Multiple Effects. We refer, 
among others, to the American Sugar Refining 
Co. , commonly known as ' ' The Sugar Trust. ' ' 
This Company has various types of multiple 
effect evaporating apparatus in use in its 
several refineries — vertical and horizontal 
Rillieux, some Yaryans, a Gaunt, and maybe 
others, — and they are quite familiar with every 
apparatus that is used for evaporating solu- 
tions. In January last, the new Mollenhauer 
Sugar Refinery commenced work with a Lillie 
Triple Effect Evaporator to concentrate its 
solutions. The American Sugar Refining Co. 
were invited to send its representatives to 



i6 



examine the Lillie, and for a month or more 
it received repeated visits from them and was 
tested by them in various manners. As a 
result of their examinations, they gave the 
apparatus their unqualified approval and have 
since placed orders with us for triple effects 
Costing more than $50,000, asking of us no 
guarantees whatever as to their performance ; 
there are no contingencies as to payments to 
be made for the apparatus other than that the 
workmanship shall be good. To other con- 
cerns, including other industries, we have, since 
the starting of the Mollenhauer Apparatus, 
sold an even greater amount of evaporators, 
measured by their money value, and in these 
cases also without having given any guarantees 
with respect to the efficiency or working of 
the apparatus we should furnish them. 

In every one of these cases, these experts 
and investors have been thoroughly satis- 
fied with the superiority of the Lillie 
Multiple Effects over every other appa- 
ratus in the market, and they have been 
willing to back their opinions with the 
amounts of money specified. 



17 

A material aid to us in making these sales 
was the record of the Lillie Quadruple Effect 
in the pulp mill of the American Wood Paper 
Co. as a scale defying apparatus. It was con- 
sidered remarkable that an apparatus should 
be capable of being so readily cleaned of a 
scale of the kind it had to contend with. 

No individual or concern that has seen 
the Lillie Triple Effect in the Mollenhauer 
Sugar Refinery, which has now been in use 
nearly six months, has purchased any other 
evaporator than the Lillie, and to such in- 
dividuals and concerns we have within the last 
four months sold Lillie Multiple Effects aggre- 
gating in value upwards of $100,000, exclu- 
sive of condensers and vacuum pumps. These 
sales were made in the face of competition 
offered by the Rillieux, Yaryan and Swenson 
evaporators. 

A similar report, we doubt not, we should 
now be able to make regarding the Lillie 
Quadruple Effect used by the American Wood 
Paper Co. and those who visited it, but for the 
unfortunate circumstances, above dwelt upon, 
which attended it. These circumstances, 



i8 



coupled with the efforts of our competitors, 
have prevented the Lillie having a triumphal 
sweep of the soda pulp industry such as it 
is having in other industries; but whatever 
our regrets for the past may be, we have 
unlimited faith in the future, and we have 
implicit confidence in the superiority of the 
Lillie for concentrating the soda liquors of 
pulp works. 

Respectfully, 

The Sugar Apparatus Mfg. Co., 

328 Chestnut Street, 

Philadelphia. 

July 15, 1893. 



Some Examples 

OF 

LILLIE MULTIPLE EFFECTS. 



THE LILLIE MULTIPLE 
EFFECT. 



It realizes the ideal mode of evaporation, 
i. e., evaporation in films. 



It has a most perfect film circulation 
maintained over its evaporating tubes by 
means of centrifugal circulating pumps, one 
for each effect, which are arranged in line on 
a common shaft underneath the effects. 



It is automatic. The flow of the liquor 
into the apparatus, and from effect to effect, is 
automatically controlled, and demands no care 
on the part of the attendant. 



Steam inside of tub the other end free 







TO CLEAN STEAM SIE 

TO CLEAN LIQUOR Sip with a solvent, if needed, 

by means of the circi 



* 




Fold-out 
Placeholder 



This fold-out is being digitized, and will be inserted at a 

future date. 



.- 










/ 







Jh* 






HOUQU / (>1 



Will handle 1 
in 



lie Quadruple Effect 

for the 

t^ierican Wood Paper Co. 





Fold-out 
Placeholder 



This fold-out is being digitized, and will be inserted at a 

future date. 



1 



ipil 
wj ni 




C >r!H slqh'l 

8o,coo U. S. gallons: 

5° B. to 30 B. BfindlloM 





Or * 



Fold-out 
Placeholder 



This fold-out is being digitized, and will be inserted at a 

future date. 



ban9>birtt ,i g .U ooo,o8 

■ 




Lillie Triple Effect 

for the 

Spreckels Sugar Refinery, Philadelphia. 





Fold-out 
Placeholder 



This fold-out is being digitized, and will be inserted at a 

future date. 



Cap^rass 
70,000 U. S. gallons exftffect 
in twenty- i 

s. 




* 




Fold-out 
Placeholder 



This fold-out is being digitized, and will be inserted at a 

future date. 



■ 

ni 








TTrt 













G .** Mbi ' 







^ ft ^r S 



Fold-out 
Placeholder 



This fold-out is being digitized, and will be inserted at a 

future date. 



/ 











a 9 









^i* ; . 




- 



s ' 










*vW, 











tt * 



Fold-out 
Placeholder 



old-out is being digitized, and will be inserted at a 



fi i-h iro Hafo 









ISSUED BY 

The Sugar Apparatus Mfg. Co., 

328 Chestnut Street, 

philadelphia. 

Makers of The I/Iijje Apparatus. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



018 370 902 1 



